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50.86% Pokemon: A life worth living / Chapter 55: C055 - The Numel Problem

Chapter 55: C055 - The Numel Problem

That night, Vivian and Sophie had immediately dragged Jasmine to the twin's room to discuss their afternoon, but the boys were pretty much oblivious to it all and didn't show much reaction.

Pete placed the two multi-colored eggs inside the currently unused incubators that used to house Oddish eggs from the Vileplume tribe but they had hatched earlier this week. As agreed, these Oddish didn't stay exlusively with Pete but returned back to the Vileplume tribe.

Together with Professor Elm, Pete confirmed that he was indeed right about his assumption. They were both Smeargle eggs. Since they were pretty unique pokemon in their own right, the professor was just as excited as Pete was.

Pete obviously went to bed alone today, and it wasn't until just before lunch that he saw Jasmine once more. She didn't sleep in like before, but still woke up only after Pete was already outside grafting the branches his pokemon had brought the night before to existing trees.

Under the teasing smirks of both Sophie and Vivian, Jasmine gave Pete a very short peck on the lips before running away toward her pokemon outside.

"Yesterday wasn't enough? I'm afraid her heart won't take a full week of all this teasing," Pete said as he shot Sophie and Vivian a mirthful grin.

"Heh! Wait until mom and all of our sisters hear of this! I wouldn't hold it against her if mom brought them all over later today just to tease Jas," Sophie gloated.

"'All' of your sisters? I thought you only had two excluding Jasmine," Pete inquired with a raised brow.

"Heh, our oldest brother Lucifern is married. Naturally, his wife Chloe counts as a sister. Rose and Buddy both have girlfriends, too. I bet they would all like to come for this," Sophie added with an 'evil' grin.

"Well, first off: I'm happy to host your family, but I didn't really build enough rooms to house the entire extended family for long out of the blue. And second: are you sure that's what you want to set into motion? Cause that would also happen once you have your first boyfriend, no?"

Sophie paled a little once she properly processed Pete's argument. Her smirk immediately turned to a horrorified mask as she hurriedly grabbed her phone from her pockets and ran back to her room.

"Pff, amateur," Vivian scoffed, gave Pete a thumbs up and turned back to tend to her son.

"Hey, what am I looking at?" Pete asked as he stepped next to Jasmine outside. The girl's blush turned a little more rosy, but she didn't break focus and kept looking at Gligar.

"Gligar is... uh, contemplating sharpness?" Jasmine answered, unsure of what she was actually looking at.

"So she's self-inflicting wounds to get why the fang is sharp? Is that what she came up with for the evolution?"

Pete looked on in concern as Duosion floated behind Gligar and repeatedly used Heal Pulse while the Gligar used one of her pincers to stab and cut herself with the sharp Dragonair fang.

"I did tell you that the evolution likely only happens during the night, right?" Pete asked with a heavy tone.

"Mhm, no worries there. I spoke to Gligar about it. I don't like seeing her like this either, though," Jasmine mumbled with a worried frown.

Pete reached out and brought Jasmine close to him with one arm on her shoulder, and her head leaned against his chest as they both looked on.

Three minutes later, Pete couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey Gligar, I know Jasmine still has a little time before she needs you to be extra strong for the gym leader challenge. How about you take it a little slow and properly recuperate with some Oran Berries? There's a limit to what even Heal Pulse can do in a day," Pete suggested with furrowed brows.

"How about you follow the adventure group after lunch and challenge some Scyther in the forest later. Who knows, maybe you'll even learn the bug move X-Scissor from them if you're just half as smart as I think you are," he added quickly.

He could see the pokemon wanted strength much more than Jasmine's other pokemon, so he offered it a different path instead of doing whatever it was doing right now and not just saying 'no, don't'.

"Have you asked Nidoking to teach you fighting moves yet? I'm sure you could figure out Rock Smash and Counter quite quickly. He's always looking for sparring partners anyway. Maybe Klink could show you some steel type energy, and you learn Metal Claw, Steel Wing, or Iron Tail?" Seeing as Gligar had stopped the self-harm and contemplated his argument instead of outright dismissing it, Pete struck the iron while it was hot.

'Elm brought the TMs for Poison Jab and Hone Claws also, though I think she already learned Bite before, so she has dark type energy,' Pete pondered.

They didn't call each other boyfriend and girlfriend yet, but Pete naturally thought about letting Jasmine in on the secret of his reusable TMs before his Hoenn trip in a little over a week. Even without the kisses the day before, he would have likely offered it soon enough.

"Sorry for speaking so much. I know only husband and wife are supposed to share everything," Pete whispered directly into Jasmine's ear as he watched Gligar fly over to Nidoking.

"N-no. I'm glad you said something. And thanks for all your suggestions. Gligar really craves for power, so you did amazing," Jasmine complimented after getting over her flustered stutter quickly.

"Have you planned anything for Numel? I mean, she could likely use some more rest, but eventually, she might not get any better. Or lose her interest in battles completely if she stays as withdrawn as she is. I know you'd never force her, but I feel like you could make sure she's okay if you say the right things," Pete asked as he turned Jasmine around to look at him and he rested both of his arms on Jasmine's shoulder as she instinctively found held him by his waist.

"Haa, the poor girl barely opened up to me and Phanpy because she's so young. Numel's kinda wary of even Steelix, and he's just a big goof-ball once you get to know him," Jasmine responded with a pout.

Pete leaned in and gave Jasmine a quick kiss, "I could get Rapidash and Growlithe to help out? Rapidash's motherly instinct is kind of cracked for these things, and Growlithe just came out of her own tragic shell. Duosion would likely want to help as well?"

Jasmine was flustered once more, getting that sudden kiss, but she quickly returned Pete's warm smile.

"Yeah, Numel and I would really appreciate that, I think. Rapidash has been trying to get closer to Numel all on her own these past few days, but without the both of us saying anything, Numel avoided her and Rapidash concentrated back on her own charges instead," Jasmine replied with a brilliant smile.

"Let me talk to them, maybe have Numel eat her lunch close to Rapidash later," Pete suggested as he gave Jasmine a warm smooch on her forehead and walked over to where Rapidash was enjoying the warmth of the sun while looking at Ponyta and Blitzle playing catch once more.

He took out one of his grooming kits, sat down next to the lying pokemon, and began to brush her velvety white fur. As Pete explained the situation to Rapidash, Jasmine kept staring at him with rosy cheeks and a big grin.

After the big lunch Pete cooked, Luna finally arrived to install the sliding door for the new underground shelter that Golurk had created inside the hill. Herbert, who had played taxi for the young interior designer with Exeggutor, gave Pete two thumbs up secretly before turning to Sophie to gossip about the situation.

It became quickly apparent that Sophie had taken plenty of pictures of the pairs interactions today, and Herbert wasn't very quiet about it. Jasmine eventually took her pokemon plus Rapidash with her and relaxed at the beach to get away from the teasing.

Pete would have followed, but he was taken into his study by Elm for a scheduled call with the other assistants back in New Bark. So the four of them, two on each side of the video call, discussed Elm's latest discoveries at Pete's farm for a few hours. Fred and Becca were largely uninterested in most things that weren't numbers and data sets, but even they watched the video of the Dragonair evolution with laser focus. Twice, they watched it twice in this call alone.

Before she left, Pete had a short discussion about how to best realise an outdoor bath in a sort of hotspring setting here at the farm, which Luna quickly explained in great detail. The fitness fanatic was a great hotspring enthusiast and wholeheartedly agreed with Pete that this place needed at least a three baths hotspring.

After dinner, when the adventure group had returned from the forest with another haul of berry tree branches, Pete got ready to accompany Jasmine and Gligar to see if they could help out in the evolution.

And despite several protests from Vivian, Professor Elm and Valentino 'intruded' in the late night date of the young couple by trying to witness this extraordinarily rare evolution with them.

Professor Elm ignored every protest of Pete, reminding him that he wasn't quite sure about this evolution and kept hyping Gligar up ever since he got wind about the plan at the dinner table.

Through the Feebas evolution, Pete knew that some pokemon needed to be in the right mindset. So he wasn't quite sure what was ultimately the cause of tonight's outcome. Professor Elm's praise, surety, and overall giddiness at seeing the evolution kind of skewed the process.


Chapter 56: C056 - Gligar evolves

As soon as the moon was seen through the clouds after the sun had set, Gligar, who was... chewing Dragonair's tooth began to softly glow. Jasmine held both her hands to her chest with teary eyes, excited for her friend to get the evolution it wanted so much.

Meanwhile, Elm was running circles around the pokemon, excitedly shouting everything he saw so it would get recorded in the video. Valentino and Pete were simply watching with wry smiles at Elm's antics.

"So it's highly likely nighttime that's required, but the dragon tooth is 50:50... between Elm's encouragement and her earlier actions of stabbing and cutting herself, it could be anything. If it's sharpness a Gligar needs to understand, why not give it a kitchen knife or a scyther claw instead of a precious sharp dragon fang," Pete mused.

Valentino looked at the Gliscor that was now taller than them when standing on her tail, and he added, "You know, I've been to many regions, but I've never seen a Gliscor. Whatever it is, it's fairly rare to happen in the wild."

Pete felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to Jasmine.

"Thank you so much," the shy girl spoke before giving him a big kiss on the cheek and running toward Gliscor.

The two held hands and claws and danced and jumped around a little to celebrate the success. Though, a few moments later, Jasmine froze on the spot and looked to Pete with a wooden expression.

"Is it still recording?" She asked with a shaky whisper.

Pete could only nod, which rapidly drained all the color from her face before her cheeks turned red.

"No worries, I'll edit that part out for everyone else when we send in the data," Pete quickly offered with a warm smile.

"Thank y- wait! Everyone else? So you'll keep a copy?"

"Of course, it is my prerogative as your boyfriend to keep stuff like that," Pete defended with a cheeky grin.

Valentino gave Pete two thumbs up and retreated after grabbing Elm's collar and dragging the man inside.

"B-boyfriend?"

"Yeah. I mean I like you very much and you like me enough to let me kiss you, so... we're girlfriend and boyfriend for now?" Pete suggested with his signature warm smile.

"Un!" Jasmine replied with a nod and walked over to give Pete a long kiss before releasing him with a warm smile of her own.

"I can see Gliscor grinning, but don't keep her waiting too long," Pete chided with another quick peck before releasing the girl.

The next morning, Pete was enjoying a cup of milk while watching over his farm with a blissful smile. Like so often these days, he was outside barefoot and training his ground affinity, so he quickly found three pokemon walking straight toward him from the river.

There were the two bridges spanning over 'Spice Island' and allowing people and pokemon alike to cross the river safely, though Pete had tasked Golurk with creating a bridge further down the river to cut down the distance you had to walk to reach the crops field Pete had planted at the beach front.

When he looked in the direction his senses reported the newcomers in, Pete shook his head because his eyes counted four, not three pokemon. Golurk, despite its massive size, was still able to hide from his ground sensing. The giant golem had told him via psychic link that his training was only over once he could see him, too.

It would take a while, but that's what he had in this world, time. Pete looked forward to spending so much time with his pokemon.

"Are you done with your special training? You two certainly grew quite a bit," Pete shouted to the newcomers.

One of them sped up to sprint to Pete and nuzzle at his leg.

"Thanks for taking so much of your time to train these two, Vileplume," Pete said in greetings to the oldest Vileplume he had seen yet.

Pete softly petted the head around the plant that grew out of Turtwig's head. And asked him how his last days were spent.

Two weeks ago, this old Vileplume offered to train Jasmine's and Pete's Turtwig all the grass moves it knew. Apparently, Torterra were revered among grass type pokemon, especially long-standing, peaceful tribes like the Vileplume tribe. Since Torterra was called the 'continent pokemon' in Oak's pokedex, Pete could think of a few ways why this pokemon was so popular.

Pete had recently learned how he could pump his typing energy into his pokemon at a very slow pace to feel out their overall health, state of exhaustion, and growth in their own respective affinity. Sadly, it only worked for pokemon with the appropriate typing energy, but that was better than nothing.

It was only after Turtwig had left, so he had no reference point, but he was quite excited to find that he was even more powerful than Snivy, the little battle maniac.

Technically, Turtwig was a little older than the 'freshly hatched' Snivy, but Snivy's growth was nothing to scoff at because the little grass snake ate more Leppa Berries relative to its size than any of his other pokemon so he can keep training longer.

He had seen the training it had concocted with Nidoking the other day. Nidoking would use Rock Blast non-stop to aim at Snivy, who would either dodge, hit it with a Razor Leaf mid-air, or swat the supercharged pebbles with a Vine Whip. The two also experimented with poison type moves because when Pete found the Nidorino back in the forests of Violet City, it only knew one poison move, Poison Sting.

These days, the two found out how to use the move Toxic, and were slowly getting the hang of both Sludge and Venoshock with Pete's tips. Nidoking had also grasped Toxic Spikes after the Ariados battles with Steelix using Stealth Rock over and over again, but Snivy couldn't do it with his meager poison type reserves.

Instead, Snivy had grasped some dragon moves during his short tutelage under Dragonair and had concentrated on expanding his move pool like that.

'Hmm, both Turtwig and Snivy have very solid foundations and crazy wide movepools. I could speed up their evolutions with the few Leaf Stones I have just lying around. The adventure group found two of them so far and since Celebi lives in the forest, I'm sure those won't be the last,' Pete mused while listening to Turtwig and Vileplume recounting the days of training.

After the Vileplume left, Pete fixed the two Turtwigs a hearty breakfast and decided to follow through with his plan.

First, without Jasmine knowing, he taught both Turtwigs Dig through a TM to give them a deeper understanding of ground type energy. Then, he took out three smaller Leaf Stones and handed them to the two Turtwig and Snivy and told them to place them where ever they were sleeping.

Evolution with the help of evolution stones was possible for every pokemon with the appropriate typing, but some pokemon simply had special reactions to certain stones. These were the pokemon that evolved through stones in the game mostly. They didn't need these stones strictly speaking, but their evolution bottle-neck would be much higher without. Just like how there was no Sun Stone anywhere near the Evergreen Meadow, from what Pete could tell, but there were still plenty Bellossoms.

Since the three pokemon had received proper training, he had no issue hurrying along their evolution.

Done with that, Pete searched for the two Minccino. The two sisters had recently asked him for a treehouse to play in which he happily constructed and hung up on the Heart Tree. After all, that tree signified home.

He even made it a little bigger than necessary because of their evolution. The treehouse looked a little out of place with its size on the still growing tree, but Pete didn't mind.

The tree would still be growing anyway. And much much larger than any other berry tree if he had anything to say about it.

After playing around for a while with the two Minccino, Pete walked over to a sort of outdoor sports stadium Golurk had built.

His two Timburr were very sad that the construction of the farm house was over so fast. They were only happy when swinging around their heavy wooden logs or lifting heavy stuff. But lifting stuff with no purpose got boring really fast for them.

To alleviate their boredom, Pete had introduced his pokemon to a few sports he thought they would like. Even rock-paper-scissors was a big hit after all.

The Timburrs' favorite so far was golf! They would swing their logs at rounded rocks and shoot them toward the lake. That's right, they only cared about distance, not actually hitting a particular goal or hole.

Their second favorite game was a very weird fusion of baseball and cricket where the pitcher was allowed to hit the ball back if he was fast enough. Yet again, the two Timburr hardly cared for points. They only cared for accurately hitting the rock balls as hard as possible.

Even Zorua and Growlithe, who joined in that particular game most often, didn't really care. All they wanted to do is fetch the ball.

As he stepped closer, he once more admonished himself what a stupid idea it was to have taught them the olympic version of javelin and hammer throw. It was a great way to train their rock affinity by making something other than a round ball, but the immediate vicinity turned absolutely deadly. Them being only allowed to throw in one particular direction didn't help much. Their strength increased daily.

'I'll have to change the rules and have them hit targets instead of simply tossing them as far as possible. Even golf could potentially kill a random fish pokemon in the lake that was unlucky enough to swim past,' Pete thought to himself as his forehead gathered a little sweat.

'Are targets enough? Probably not. They'll want to measure who threw harder... steel targets with varying thickness,then? Can Klink provide enough of them in a day without exhausting himself?'


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